Media Evaluation

Final Products

Teaser Trailer

Move Magazine Cover

Movie Poster

Music Choices

The first is called In Motion (created by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross) featured on original soundtrack for 'The Social Network'. I decided to look into the music for this film as although it is a Drama and not a Thriller the tone of the film is dark at times and as the film is based around technology supported by the music is described as sound as if it 'were written by and for machines' [source: iTunes]. However, I chose not to use this song in the end as I didn't want the sound to my film being reminiscent of a film that was not realeased that long ago (2010) - the problem with this is that the song was directly created for a certain film and as this film doesn't relate in anyway to mine except the darkness expressed about technology I don't feel as though the music would support it.

The second is called 'The Darkest Star' by Depeche Mode, which was described by NME as sound like 'gum-pop self-harmings' which is strongly suggested by it's dark tone. When playing this song with my teaser trailer I found a part of the song, that happened to be the start, which fitted perfectly - the louder beats as well as the slower moments were synchronous with the pace and how I had arranged the faster parts and the slower parts. Because the song has not been used as a soundtrack for a major film this solves the problem of my teaser trailer sending out the wrong message to the audience. Instead it brings more originality to my piece which is perfect for a new release from a more independent studio background. The music also has strong electronical features working well with the storyline of my entire film hinted at within my teaser trailer with the shots of the keyboard and sound of typing.

CONCLUSION: I have decided the piece best suited for my trailer is Depeche Mode's 'The Darkest Star' as it just fits so well with my teaser trailer and supports the ideas and emotions I want to get across to my audience. At the same time as this though the song is much more original in terms of movie soundtracks and will not influence immediate relations between my film and anyone elses. I now have to place it within my trailer and ensure I am at the 30 second mark so that I have not broken any copyright laws.

Final 2 Magazine Covers

Although I got positive feedback for both these covers in my previous stage of market research I decided to develop them both further in order to make a well judged decision taking into account my audience feedback as well as my own creative decisions. Whilst I like the first one I feel as though it looks more amateur and although my magazine is more of an independent magazine it looks too cheap to appeal to any audience. The title on the first one is also off putting as it cuts the image up too much, these are things I prefer with my second cover [the one that my audience seemed to find much more appealing]. I have improved the things that they fed back to me - therefore I have chosen to go with this cover. Not only has my audience determined my decision but in my opinion, the photo used for the cover tells a lot more about the film it is trying to sell than the first - the girl looks much more victimised in her facial expression and the contrast in shadows and light create a sinister film, something present in all 3 of my products. 

Magazine Covers - Market Research Feedback

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These are the 3 magazine covers I have created after taking the series of photographs for my model that I wanted to possibly use for the final piece. To establish the opinions of my target audience (this time for the magazine and it's brand identity) which is young females interested primarily in film and in fashion and beauty secondary. To do this I uploaded them onto facebook which can be seen below...

I then posted the link to the album of the covers to different people depending on their details - ensuring they were between 18-30 and that they were female. These are some of the comments I received for the covers..

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Cover 1: This cover got the most response from my market research participants. More than a few people said this was their favourite (which can be seen by the sample of comments I have print screened) because they felt it was very dramatic and would stand out as a cover of a magazine. One of the improvements that was fed back to me however was the lighting of the photograph – several people criticised the orange shade believing that this lighting made the cover look cheaper.

Cover 2: The second cover did not get as much positive feedback. People felt that the photograph looked rushed/amateur and that the facial expression looked unusual. However, one positive was the fact some people picked up on the visible studio lights that connotate ‘celebrity and spotlight’.

Cover 3: The third was similar to the first in the positive feedback it received. Again, people felt that it was very dramatic, and liked how vulnerable the girl looked and how she looked almost confused however some people felt that the title of the movie ‘watchREALITYwatch’ was not visible enough and that for a cover magazine for a film the actress being introduced was not visible enough herself.

Conclusion

Weighing up the feedback it is clear that both Cover 1 and Cover 3 have got the most positive feedback however, Cover 3 seemed to be the most popular. Still, there were things people felt needed to be improved about it and so my aim now is to improve them to create my final movie poster suited to my target audiences feedback and what they wanted.

IMPORTANT NOTE: one thing that my market research revealed about all my covers was that people felt the arrangement of my text was misleading in the fact that it seemed backwards, almost as if it was a cover that turned over from the left hand side... I will think about that when improving the cover I have chosen.

Improving - According to Market Research

To please my target audience I chose to alter certain things according to the feedback I was given during market research. One thing mentioned frequently was the shots of the female turning around - it was too repetitive which is not the effect I was hoping for as I was attempting to build up pace and tension. Whilst looking at video FX on iMovieHD I found an effect perfect for my teaser - it is called 'N-Square' and it duplicates the shot. Because the film is based around a woman's entire life being recorded as a reality show the idea of multiple screens connotates the idea of being watched because it symbolises TV screens. I have chosen to add this to the shots [seen in the screen shot above] gradually multiplying the amount of screens therefore enforcing my main aim of building up tension and pace.

I also had to make the black and white effect more consistent - which at first worried me as I didn't want to continuous black and white shots to overshadow the fact that the film is not just in black and white. However, during production I decided to include the shots of the directors hands typing to give a direct relationship with the teaser and the sound as well as the shot of twitter (which can stay in colour) and the ending where it zooms out to reveal the editing of her life. Because my teaser is broken up with shots in colour this solves the worry of the entire thing portraying what is not a black and white film. This is however, something that was fed back to me by my target audience and therefore I understand that this is something they feel would improve the teaser trailer.

It was also fed back to me that the text was lost in the teaser trailer however, my audience did feel that the font it emulated the style used in social networking - being clean cut and crisp. However, iMovieHD only allowed my text to be as big as I had it in the original draft unless I placed some of the sentence below in a smaller font. The titles still work well as the 'Everybody wants' holds alot of significance and the larger font connotates the idea of 'the masses'. I have chosen to go ahead with enlarging the fonts as they are a crucial point of hooking my audience by addressing them and informing them about the film's storyline.

Another thing people felt was needed was sound to accompany the shots of the lights so I recorded the sound of a projecting light turning on and edited it using AudioFX using 'reverb' and using the Cathedral Setting to give it more of a dramatic and echoey feel to it.

UPDATE [24/02/12]: I have put the final touches on to my teaser trailer according to my market research. I have added music which I will create an individual post on to expand on my choices, I have also recorded visuals for the beginning of my trailer to ensure that I grab people's attention straight away as the idea of just a blank screen might not hook people fast enough in a cinema or television viewing. Below is a printscreen of the recording that I incorporated into my teaser - the visual is the 'no signal' screen on tv - the idea behind this was to grab people's attention because if someone was to see this in the cinema they would initially think there was something wrong with the projection or at home on there TV therefore grabbing therefore hooking them. I also made changes to the dialogue at the ending of my trailer where it originally said 'It's a show on you, all of you!', this was interpreted as quite misleading when my market research group watched it as they heard it as if it was being said to a group of people - as this is not the case I have taken this bit of speech out and have found that the single piece of script 'I didn't sign up for this' is much more effective on its own.

Magazine Cover Templates & Feedback

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From my prezi in this post on mainstream magazine covers [HERE] you can see that I have annotated the main features that appear. Above are my cover templates using the final 2 titles that my target audience felt were the best. As well as these titles are some features inspired by mainstream magazine covers - like I have written on the prezi the font sizes differ according to importance. This is something I have done with the quote of the actress hinting at what her role entails in the film, this quite being almost as large as the title of the film - this hints at the rest of the interview that would be within the magazine hooking the audience of the cover.

Her name is also featured largely in order to give identity to the woman on the cover creating an immediate sense of familiarity between the audience and the actress which stops people who aren't aware of the actress from being alienated by the magazines audience. As my magazine aims to do, I have borrowed interests such as fashion which also feature in a larger font appealing to my target audience.

My cover stories are in a recurring simple font making it easy to read meaning the cover is accessible to all readers. The font for the film title stays with the theme of the rest of the magazine yet the use of italics is unique to the title itself helping it to stand out and remind any viewers of the title if they have seen it in any other parts of the movie campaign.

CHOOSING COVER

I have chosen to go with the first template and title as I believe that this title suits the brand identity of the magazine much more than CLOSE-UP. Like I have previously said the name is easily misinterpreted as a fashion and beauty magazine and the allusions to vintage move actresses can give the wrong idea to the brand identity also. The overall independent women's movie magazine I aim to create [without the stereotypical look of an overly feminine girls magazine suits far better to the TAKE2 title as it has a direct relation to film and although I previously commented on the negative that it has no female connotations I have now realised that this could work well in promoting the brand identity I have created for my magazine. Still, to the combat this issue I have used the statement of 'Women's Magazine' on the cover.